The Breitbart News reports that Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked the impeachment manager whether Kamala Harris (R-Texas) incited the riots at the Black Lives Matter protests.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) submitted a question on the fourth day of the Senate impeachment hearings against former President Donald Trump, asking whether the language used by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020 about the Black Lives Matter protests was considered incitement given the impeachment manager’s “proposed standard of incitement.
Cruz began his question by saying, “When violent riots raged, Kamala Harris went on national television and said, ‘They won’t let up, and they shouldn’t let up.'” He cited then-Senator Harris’ viral comments about the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last June.
The protests, sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in May, began largely peacefully, but in many cases, over the course of several months in 2020, eventually turned into destructive riots across the country, including vandalism, looting, fires, violence, injuries, and in some cases, even deaths.
Cruz’s question also referenced the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF), which Harris urged her Facebook and Twitter followers to support in June 2020, “and she raised money to bail out violent rioters.”
The Minnesota Freedom Fund, an organization that aims to counter cash bail by providing bail money for detainees. The fund received an influx of donations during last year’s protests and touted its mission when many people were arrested who were not just protesting, but allegedly breaking the law.
While Harris asked her followers to “help post bail for those protesting,” the fund’s website states that it “does not support bail based on the crime an individual is charged with,” and that it also releases people charged with egregious crimes from jail. Last year, the Minnesota Freedom Fund granted bail to a father accused of molesting his teenage daughter, a man accused of sexually assaulting his teenage niece, a man accused of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old child and a woman accused of stabbing her aunt, The Daily Caller reported in November.
Cruz went on to ask, “Is there any coherence between Donald Trump’s words being incitement and Kamala Harris’s words not being incitement, using the criteria set forth by the impeachment manager?”
Photo: Impeachment Manager Jamie Raskin (D-CA)
Jamie Raskin, the head House impeachment manager, responded to the question on the House floor, saying he was “not familiar” with the Harris quote Cruz mentioned; however, Trump lawyer Michael T. van der Veek denied the claim in his own response to Cruz, saying his team had given the House team the video of Harris’ quote, and they had played it three times that day.
Raskin also said that while not acknowledging the quote, he found it “absolutely inconceivable that Vice President Harris would incite violence or encourage or promote violence. Obviously, this is completely irrelevant to the current proceedings, and I will allow her to defend herself.”
In a related question during the trial, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), representing himself, Cruz, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (D-N.Y.), asked, “Does a politician offering bail money to a thug encourage more riots?” A representative of Trump’s legal team replied, “Yes.”
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